Feed-water pump eor steam-boilers



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERASTUS IV. ELLSVVORTH, OF EAST IVINDSOR HILL, CONNECTICUT.

FEED-WATER PUMP FOR STEAM-BOILERS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 16,206, dated December 9, 1856.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, ERAsTUs IV. ELLs- WORTH, of East lVindsor Hill, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Steam-Pump; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in a new mode of constructing an engine and pump to be operated by steam power, so that the combined machine is applicable, not only to the miscellaneous uses of a steam-pump, but is especially and peculiarly adapted to supplying steam boilers with water; it being so devised as not only to pump water into the boiler which supplies it with power, but to maintain the water in said boiler at a nearly constant and uniform level, regulating and adapting its own motion to the rate of waste by evaporation or leakage.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my improvement, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings A, represents a portion of the head of a cylindrical boiler, of which B, B', B, are the try-cocks. The steam pump is shown in section, and is supposed to be attached to the exterior of the boiler-head. D, is the steam cylinder, and E the piston, the rod of which is enlarged so as to resemble a plunger rather than a piston rod, and the area of a cross-section of this plunger is about half the area of the piston E. The pump G, is similarly constructed, with a plunger-piston-rod H, of half the cross-sectional area of its piston I. The pump has two valves J, K. The water enters the pump at K, and discharges into the boiler through L. This pump would be an Ordin ary single acting lift and force pump, were it not for the enlarged piston rod H, whereby the back pressure from the boiler causes as much resistance to the downward as to the upward stroke. This form of pump I propose to use for the sake of its simplicity, but do not restrict myself to it. An ordinary double acting force pump,with four valves, is equally adapted to my pur- Jose.

1 The steam valve arrangement of my engine is shown at M, and is adjusted to admit and discharge steam above the piston E, only. The cylinder port is at N, and steam is admitted from the boiler through the cock O, between the two pistons P, Q; the upper piston being half the area of the lower. IV hen the upper piston P, is above the port N, steam enters the cylinder D, and when below escapes through S. The pistons P, Q, are connected by the'tube R, and as Q, is double the area of P, the pressure of steam between them tends to keep them down, and the port N, open to S, the escape pipe. The tube R, is flattened into a plane surface on t-he side R, and is divided by a partition at T, and has a small port on each side of T through the plane side. These ports are controlled by a D valve U, to which motion is communicated by the valve rod V, through the lower port. Now if there be a pressure of steam between the pistons P, Q, when in the position shown in the drawing, and if the valve rod V, be pressed upward so as to slide the D-valve U, steam enters at the lower port guarded by U, and diffusing itself under the piston Q, forces up the whole arrangement V, Q, U, R, P. Steam then is free to enter N, and force down piston E. In like manner if the valve rod be pulled sufliciently to slide U, downward, the steam escapes from under piston Q, through U, R, P, S, and then the arrangement P, R, U, Q, V, is carried downward by the pressure between the unequal pistons, and port N, is then open to S, and the pressure above E, 1s relieved. This valve movement 1s reversed at the proper moment for reversing `the stroke of the engine, by the arm V, pro- 'ectino from )lunver F which arm comes in contact with flanges or nuts at proper distances apart on the valve rod.

The manner 1n which the steam 1s aplplied to E, to make the engine perform its upward stroke, remains to be described. This is accomplished by the connection between the interiors ofthe steam cylinder and boiler by the pipe and clock X. The passage through X, to under side of piston E is left free, but since the cross-sectional area of the piston-rod is half that of the piston E, the engine will make up and down strokes of equal power, simply by admitting and discharging, above the piston, steam of the same pressure as is applied continuously below it. The current through X, has therefore a reciprocating movement, into the cylinder from the boiler, and back from the cylinder into the boiler again.

This movement is made use of to regulate the speed of the pump. The tube X, communicates with the boiler at the water line. When the water is below that line, steam circulates through X, and when above it, water. The difference in the densities of these two fluids causes the engine to be more or less held in check, and impeded, as the height of water in the boiler is ample or deficient. The cock X, moreover maybe set so as to regulate the variations between full speed and slow, within any desired range. It is therefore manifest that this engine does in effect try the height of the water at every stroke, and then like an intelligent and faithful engineer it pumps fast or slow accordingly. Moreover what the steam cylinder receives beneath its piston,

whether steam or water, it returns again to the boiler, and this perpetual trial of the height of the water wastes nothing.

The pipe X is not disposed to clog from impurities in the boiler, because the current through it ebbs and flows, but it should be protected by a strainer.

I propose to make the plungers of my engine and pump hollow cylinders, open at the inner ends, and closed at the outer, and to attach the pistons to them by rods linked to the interior of said outer ends; this will obviate any one sided crowding and leakage of the packings, which might result,

were the pistons and plungers all rigidlyV connected. The hollow plunger of the pump serves also as an air vessel. The outermost heads of the steam and pump cylinders.

should be removable, for access Yto the pistons and valves.

It is obvious that the piston valve P, Q, cannot slam, or shoot with violence from end to end of its beat, however light the friction of the pistons P, Q, or heavy the pressure of steam between them. To move the valve, the slide U, must first be moved, and in the same direction as the proposed movement of the pistons P, Q. So soon as U, is moved far enough to occasion a rever- 'sal of the action of the steam on the pistons P, Q, the whole vcombination V, Q, U, R, P, starts away from the initial force ap- `upon the valve rod V.

plied at WV, and (if the pressure of steam be strong) with the port of U, open so small a distance that the pistons P, Q, travel the length of their beat with a velocity hardly faster than that with which the arm 1W, was moving at the instant when it acted It is moreover obvious that this engine has no dead pointthat is, the working parts cannot be stopped in any position so that a pressure of steam or water will not tend to start them, and continue their motion.

Having, as I believe, fully described all that is essential in the construction and operation of my improved steam pump, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The method of making a steam pump, when applied to maintaining the level of water in steam boilers, or of other liquids rin similar vessels, regulate its own speed,

by causing the liquid, when at, or above the proper level, to apply resistance to the motion of the engine of the pump; that resistance being caused by the circulation of said liquid back and forth through a narrow passage communicating between the above men- 'tioned boiler, or vessel, and a variable cavity operated by said engine, said variable cavity being constituted by a piston and plunger working in a cylinder, as herein described, or in any similar manner whereby substantially the same result is accomplished; and, in making this claim, I wish it distinctly understood that I do not claim the connection of the steam pipe of a pumping engine with the boiler at the water line, whereby steam, or water, or both fluids pass constantly from the boiler, and are exhausted through the engine, and by their differ- Ient densities regulate the speed of the engine; for the pipe which conveys the steam expended in working my engine has not such a connection; but my claim is as above set forth.

ERASTUS W. ELLSWORTH. Witnesses:

W. SHIPMAN, WM. B..SMITH 

